spelling that exclamation of disgust

[Stahlke, Herbert F.W.]

In my speech, it's a vowel sequence, as Mark suggests, but the initial vowel is high back unrounded, or perhaps a little closer to high central.  This unEnglish vowel fits in with the interjection being a paralinguistic gesture of the sort Mark and Larry commented on.

Herb

        At 12:57 PM -0500 12/29/03, Mark A. Mandel wrote:
        >
        >"ee-yoo" -- IPA [i(j)u] -- is not a diphthong, but a sequence of two
        >vowels, with a glide in between that may be more or less prominent.

        Exactly.  That's a bit clearer than my version last night, which
        stressed the fact that it's bisyllabic while true diphthongs aren't.

        >Segmentally, it's no different from the vowel sequence in "I <see you>"
        >or "r<eu>nite".
        >